Kubiertos

You all know how much I love cheesecake. I made a simple cheesecake, a chocolate cheesecake and now I have successfully whipped up a mocha cheesecake. This was inspired by the most perfect coffee cheesecake that my friends and I had while enjoying coffee and great conversation at Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. Surprisingly, my cheesecake proved to be the most perfect among all those that I have baked. No cracks, intense taste. So I am sharing with you my tried and tested recipe. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

Crust

1 cups crushed graham crackers
1 stick of butter

Filling

16 oz cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup all purpose cream
2 tbsp instant coffee granules
1 tbsp hot water
1 tbsp flour
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Procedures:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine all the ingredients for the crust in a bowl and mix with a fork until evenly moistened. Coat the bottom of an 8-inch springform pan with this mixture and refrigerate for 15 minutes.

Mix the coffee with the hot water to make a coffee paste.

Beat the cream cheese on low speed for 1 minute. Add in the eggs one at a time. Gradually add the sugar. Continue beating while you add the cream, vanilla extract, coffee paste and flour.

Pour the batter into the pan and bake in a water bath for 1 hour and 10 minutes. Leave inside the over for another hour. Cool overnight for best results.

Thank you very much to all those who participated in the Discovery Travel and Living Christmas Giveaway. Everyone’s ideas were different, unique and really interesting. I hope everyone had a very nice Christmas celebration!

Winners:
1. kahodin
2. bachuchay
3.Alvin
4. torque15
5. Gayz MB
6. Marizen Villamora
7. rem
8. Lei
9. Ann
10. Mae
11. Kim
12. Joanne Gonzales
13. Allan Reyes
14. gail
15. Pam

I will be sending emails to all the winners regarding details of their prizes so please watch out for those. Congratulations and thank you for making this contest successful!

** Special thanks to Discovery Travel and Living

These days I always get chided for not sharing my recipes for dishes that I serve to friends and family. I tell them its not that I don’t want to share, I just have limited time to sit down and actually come up with witty words to go with the recipes that I publish. I don’t want my posts to be just a recipe. I try to add some story or two to accompany my recipes because in reality my recipes are parts of my life.

The following recipe is inspired by one of my husband’s favorite fast food dishes, the Mongolian Barbecue. It is called Mongolian Barbecue but all it really is, is stir fried meat, seafood and rice mixed all together. Typically when you go to a restaurant here that offers Mongolian Barbecue, you are given a bowl for you to fill with tons of ingredients to choose from. There would be different meats, seafood, vegetables, rice and of course the create-your-own Mongolian sauce or you can choose from the restaurant’s default blend. The chef would then stir fry everything in a big grill or wok or whatever they use to cook your order. The result would be hot, steaming and delicious Mongolian barbecue. Because of all the ingredients they offer, eating out at Mongolian Barbecue places can be pricey. So I decided to recreate the same, if not similar experience at home.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of chicken thigh fillets
1/2 cup of pork tenderloin chopped into small pieces
1/2 cup of squid rings
1/2 cup of shrimp
1/2 cup of carrots sliced into thin strips
1/2 cup of chopped cabbage
1 cup of bean sprouts
1 cup of cooked white rice
1 large onion chopped
1 clove garlic minced
2 tbsp sambal oelek (optional, you can omit if you don’t want the heat)
2 tbsp sesame oil
3 tbsp teriyaki sauce
3 tbsp kikkoman soy sauce
1 tbsp brown sugar
salt and pepper
spring onions chopped (for garnish)

Procedures:

Combine meat, seafood, vegetables, rice in a bowl. Set aside. Combine teriyaki sauce, kikkoman soy sauce and sugar in another bowl. Set aside.

Place wok or frying pan over high heat. When wok starts to smoke put in sesame oil. Then stir fry sambal oelek until the oil absorbs the spice (or until your eyes tear up). Then stir fry garlic and onion. Be careful not to let the garlic burn so keep stirring! Stir fry the meat until they are slightly cooked. Add the seafood and the rest of the ingredients including the condiments and keep stirring until everything is cooked.

Pour into a bowl and sprinkle with spring onions. Enjoy!